The CanCon Catalogue

If you read this site, you're probably a fan of Canadian music. And if you're a fan of Canadian music, then I almost guarantee that you listen to CBC Radio 3 (if you don't, you should). Well, it seems that due to the financial situation taking on the world, Radio 3 might be on the chopping block. This is a problem. To my mind, CBC Radio 3 is one of the most important components of the Canadian music scene, providing a national forum for independent bands to be heard. It is 100% Canadian, and is better than any other music station I have ever heard, and losing it would be monumentally bad for this country. If you feel the same way, I would strongly urge you join the Facebook group, sign the petition, and get involved.

Information

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Contact CBC

I'm a bit behind on my live reviews, so I'm condensing them into one post here.

First, the Tranzmitors at Lucky Bar last Friday. I was relieved to see that Lucky, which I'm going to be seeing more than a few more shows at, is a good and honest rock bar, well set up for drinking, dancing, or just watching. The Tranzmitors make the kind of music for doing the first two, and the audience obliged. They clearly learned from the past, taking to the stage with skinny suits and vintage gear, including an Ace Tone keyboard, which is probably the only kind of keyboard that should be allowed in bands like that from now on.

Between the jagged guitar, vocal harmonies, and ska-influenced keyboard, I couldn't help but feel like  I was seeing the logical next step in a lineup that starts with Buddy Holly, moves over to the Beatles pre-Please, Please Me, and was picked up by the Clash of 1977, the Specials, and Elvis Costello. If you ever wished you could have been packed into the sweaty early shows of those groups, the Tranzmitors are a must-see.

****

On to Hawksely Workman, who also draws on rock history, only a lot more of it comes from the 80's and the alt-rock movement. Opening act Geoff Berner was... interesting... as a one-man accordion band who writes songs about World War II and government programs that are cut while the Olympics continue to get funding. There were laughs, yes, but awkward, awkward laughs, too.



As for Workman-- well, he can sing and he can play the guitar, no question, but it would be nice if he spent a little more time doing it and less time telling long, rambling stories that go nowhere, are unrelated to the song, and are full of pauses as he tries to think of words that I don't think once came to him. Banter is one thing, but this was more listening to a less humorous Grandpa Simpson.

As much as I might be rattling old-school Workman fans here (if there are any), this is an act who could benefit a lot more from focusing on his newest albums and ditching his back catalogue save for a few songs. Between the Beautifuls is easily his strongest album and he only deemed to play one song from it, "The City is A Drag," completely foregoing "Piano Blink," one of the single best songs of the last three years, and one that he actually has placed on CD THREE times over the last year. Why would you not play it?



Instead, he chose to focus on his Eurocentric dance-rock stuff, resulting in extended jam-ups that were only interesting half the time. Basically it was song (3 minutes) jam (4 minutes) awkward talk (3 minutes), which drains a lot of the momentum. The only place it really picked up was when "I'm Jealous of Your Cigarette" went into a medley of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and then, INSTEAD OF AWKWARD BANTER, they went right into "Striptease." He also spent some time with ballads, such as the opening song "Almost a Full Moon," which musically has the gravitas of U2, but whose feeling is undermined by shopping list lyrics ("Pumpkin and parsnip, carrots and turkey bones/Bay leaf and pepper, potato and garlic cloves," ending with multiple repeats of "Let's make some soup"). Again, given the strength of the lyrics on his later work, it just seemed odd he would spend time with this.


In the interest of full-disclosure, he did get a standing ovation and an encore, but in my opininon people are WAY too generous with both of those things these days, and the encore was just an attempt to get him to play the songs that people came to hear (he did do "Smoke Baby," but, as I said, no "Piano Blink"), and if it weren't for the fact that we were blocked in, we probably would have taken the opportunity to leave early. If you're an old-school fan, yeah, you'll like the show, but otherwise I wouldn't go over a $20 ticket price.

What's to say? If you've listened to Hawksley Workman lately, you know that he's one of the best (and most prolific) singer-songwriters in Canada, putting out two albums last year alone, one focused on pop and ballads and the other more dance-rock. If you haven't listened to him lately, you probably think of him as the guy who did "Striptease," and "Jealous of Your Cigarette" and not much else. Well, back then he had moments of greatness, but was somewhat inconsistent. Since then, well, he still has moments of inconsistency, but they are far fewer and far between, and the greatness is, well, greater. If you wrote him off before, it's time to take a second look.

Hawksley Workman plays tonight at the Royal McPherson theatre. Tickets and details here.

Tuesday Revue: In which I write about the new releases that might actually be worth checking out.


The Tuesday Revue: Remember back before the internet? Back when if you wanted to hear a new album you actually had to wait for it to be released, and then go, physically GO, buy it? Those days sucked, right? But there was also something to the experience of carefully considering which works were worth your time and cash, and then experiencing them as a whole. The Tuesday Revue tries to present, for your consideration, albums that might actually be worth more investment than the time it takes to find a torrent. This week: Gentleman Reg and K'naan.


I. Gentleman Reg- Jet Black

I don't know whether it's microtizing or a huge marketing blitz across the spectrum (my money's on the former), buts ads for this release have been following me around the internet for the past much. Fair enough. Because from a marketer's perspective, this album is right up my alley: a semi-quirky singer-songwriter who is a former member of the Hidden Cameras and Broken Social Scene member and is regularly compared to (and works with) Sufjan Stevens releases his long-anticipated fourth album? That's definitely within my niche, even if I have the same amount of passion for Sufjan Stevens as I do for, I don't know, flax (I'm aware it exists and may even get a taste once in a while, but darned if I know or remember-- how's that for a metaphor?)

But even with the targeted marketing coming my way and the buzz coming out of ear-to-the-ground outlets as far back as November '08, I really expected to shrug my shoulders at this one, so when I actually sat down to give it a listen, I came out surprised. The first fourteen seconds of the first song, "Coastlines" had me thinking all my expectations were correct: acoustic guitar? Check. Lo-fi vocals? Check. Backing female vocals that sound like someone's sister? Check. But then, fifteen seconds in the song drops in key for mere moments, and suddenly the song sounds like mid-90s alt rock circa the Foo Fighters, and then at 0:36 there's actually some Talking Heads style guitar noodling. When the not-quite honky-tonk piano comes in, I'm sold.

And that's where Gentlemen Reg gets his strength. He plays the style of 2007-2009 indie rock that we all love to hate, but it's rooted in and draws from (alt) rock history, throwing in enough variety to keep it interesting. "When Heroes Switch Professions" sounds like it's recorded underwater, "How We Exit" has some Queen of the Stones Age type riffiage going on, and "Rudy" cribs an organ line from the Trojan Records catalogue. Every song has at least three distinct parts to it, and the variety of instruments is always used for effect, not novelty. Don't get me wrong, with the possible exception of "We're In A Thunderstorm," which draws on the trance movement of a decade ago, this album is firmly within the "twee" (if that's the word) singer-songwriter spectrum, but is better than average.

If nothing else, check out the first single "You Can't Get It Back," (posted below). This is a definite highlight, with Reg at his most rock and roll, the mumbled lyrics coming off like Hayden and the slightly distorted guitar coming off like Randy Bachman.

You can preview the whole album at Gentleman Reg's myspace, and you can buy the album from Arts and Crafts or cheaper at Zunior.

"Coastlines"




Next Review: K'naan, "Troubadour"

Tuesday Revue: In which I write about the new releases that might actually be worth checking out.


The Tuesday Revue: Remember back before the internet? Back when if you wanted to hear a new album you actually had to wait for it to be released, and then go, physically GO, buy it? Those days sucked, right? But there was also something to the experience of carefully considering which works were worth your time and cash, and then experiencing them as a whole. The Tuesday Revue tries to present, for your consideration, albums that might actually be worth more investment than the time it takes to find a torrent. This week: Gentleman Reg and K'naan.

II. K'naan- Troubadour

Like Gentleman Reg, this is that rare indie Canadian release that comes with a lot of pre-release buzz, although this time I think it's a little more mainstream. As the X3 Artist of the Month K'naan has been getting love from CBC Radio 3, aux.tv, and Exclaim! magazine, but perhaps more notably (in terms of the level of exposure he's experiencing) he's been everywhere from CNN to Jimmy Kimmel over the last month. Say what you will, he's out there working.

Musically, Troubadour starts out promisingly enough with TIA (standing for This Is Africa), with a beat that could almost be an M.I.A. throwaway. For anyone who listened to The Dusty Foot Philosopher, we are immediately given a familiar theme: Africa is way, way, way worse than anything most North American rappers are familiar with. From the first verse:

"I take rappers on a field trip any day.../I know where all the looters and shooters stay/Welcome to the city we all call doomsday."

The problem I had, and continue to have, with this type of track is that while it ostensibly trying to put self-styled North American gangsters in their position, it's being done in the same way that they put each other in their position: by bragging about how much toughter their hood is than anyone else's. Granted, it's undoubtedly true that K'naan's seen harder times, but it's still the same game of one-ups-manship that he's supposed to be against.

Fortunately, these tracks never get out of control, and he's far more reflexive elsewhere, remembering the time he was nearly killed by a grenade, or the choice his mother had to make in leaving behind K'naan's cousins in order to get her son our of war-torn Somalia. "Fatima" is perhaps the best of these reflections, finding K'naan lamenting about the girl he left behind when he came to North America, crying, "Damn you country, so good at killing/ Damn you feeling for perserving." He's a gifted lyricist, no doubt, whether talking about life for a soldier in Iraq, praising his mother, or describing the "fifteen minutes" it takes for a money transfer to be processed so he can eat again.

In fact, K'naan is that rarest of breeds: a rapper whose lyrics are better than his beats. And while he attributes this to the need to send money home rather than buy Kanye tracks, it is a setback. With some notable exceptions like "TIA," first single "ABC's" and the inverted blues Mos Def collaboration "America," too often the music veers into the overproduced dance/pop/hip-hop sound that you may be familiar with if you've spent any time listening to local "world" music. Actually, when I think of it, K'naan is also strange in that he's a rapper who's better live than recorded, since he performs with a backing band, which make for a more organic sound than most of what you find here.

That said, this is still definitely worth getting. There's enough good ideas and K'naan is engaging enough that it overcomes the shortcomings, even when it's Adam Levine of Maroon 5 being completely unnecessary in the otherwise fantastic stutter-funk of "Bang Bang" or Kirk Hammett getting in the way on a redux version of "If Rap Gets Jealous." At one point K'naan brags "I made the list this year, I'm honour roll." If that's true, then let's hope his next album sees him ditching the big-name vocal collaborations from other genres (Damian Marley, and Mos Def, and Chubb Rock, who actually have personal relationships with K'naan and sound natural here, excluded) and spending the saved cash on some big-name beats. But then again, given how good his stripped-down live performances on Q were (listen here), maybe he should just pocket it and skip the money transfers.

You can listen to Troubadour on K'naan's MySpace (but you should probably read this first), and you can buy it here.

"TIA"

I like this article by Stephen Marche in this weekend's edition of the National Post. It's mostly about this ongoing conflict over the reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, but more broadly its a reflection on how Canadians relate to their history. The part I find particularly intriguing is:

It is good for us to be reminded of our national moments of madness because we have so few. Figures like Riel - Pierre Trudeau was another - represent the country while living outside the values that circumscribe it: quietness, common sense, self-deprecation. We need these figures of insanity to assuage the longing for wildness caged within our orderly, well-regulated society."

You can read the full article here.

Help me decide the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music Over the Last 10 Years

If you want to know the rules, click here.

Like many music lovers, I'm one of those people who enjoys lists. I'm not High-Fidelity compulsive about it, but at the very least I use the month of December to review the year in music and compile a list of what I think was the best to come out of the last 365 days, usually in the form of an iPod playlist.

Lately, though, the spark has been gone. There's only so many times you can see the "Greatest Artists" or "Greatest Albums" be topped by the usual suspects-- the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Presley, et al, before becoming bored with the whole thing. What catches my interest these days are the ones that enforce different limitations on who qualifies. You can do this by making time limits, as in Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born (ie 1980) or sorting by nationality, such as Bob Merseau's Top 100 Canadian Albums. Both of these are great because they (mostly) get rid of the names that everyone knows and allow the spotlight to be turned on to some other artists who are (arguably) just as or more worthy than the usual suspects (who are for the most part British and American artists from the 60s and 70s).

Which brings me to today's post. I've decided that with 2010 fast approaching, we should start looking back on the last decade of Canadian music. I genuinely believe that we are living in what will one day be considered Canada's classical period, when the musical scene of our country was full of great artists with as much depth to it as any other place at any other point in time.

So I'm going to compile, with your help, the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music Over the Last 10 Years. This is going to be divided into two parts. First, I'm going to count down ten reasons Canadian music did so well over the last decade. Then, I'm going to list the 100 Greatest Canadian Artists, 2000-2010.


I already have a lot of ideas, but this process would be completely invalid if it didn't receive as much input as possible. That's why I'm asking you to give me your suggestions: who and what should be on these lists, what criteria should be used to define "great", who is "Canadian", does Neil Young qualify even though he's old and in California, will anyone openly vote for Nickelback, and so on. So please, make your voice heard. You can comment on this blog, you can email canconcontact@gmail.com, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter, whatever.

I also hope that if you think this is a good idea you try to get other people involved by directing them here. And other bloggers, I encourage to start the discussion on your own sites as well, I only ask that you alert me that you have done so and direct your readers towards me as well, so that their thoughts can inform my decisions.

Let the discussion begin!


High Fidelity: Top Five

To read about the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music, click here.

Although I will be the final arbiter of who is on these lists and how they're ranked, I promise to be completely open to any and all suggestions. If I deviate drastically from popular opinion, I will let it be known, and I will present my reasons why. Heck, I'll even post the results of the popular vote alongside my own "official" list. The reason I'm acting as a gatekeeper, as such, is that I don't want this to be a matter of whoever has the most fans gets the top spot-- that's how the Junos work, and we all know what a fiasco that is. So while the popular vote will definitely be a factor, it won't be the only one. A well-presented, well-reasoned argument by one person could well have just as much impact as fifteen votes with just a name-- plus, if I really like something you write and you're willing to let me publish it, I will.

Like I say, I'm completely open in this process. I'm interested in starting a discussion and a debate, and am willing to let the criteria work itself out. I think 110 is a good number, but maybe we'll wind up with fifteen reasons and only fifty artists, or maybe we'll get so many nominations it should be expanded to 200-- who knows? It really depends on what happens over the next few months.